Danny Nightingale Free

Best Christmas present he and his family could have wished for

http://news.sky.com/story/1018457/nightingale-jailed-sas-sniper-walks-free

 

Its good that he is no longer detained, but he's not exactly free.

He has a 12 month suspended sentence. That means if he steps even slightly out of line, for example if he goes out to celebrate and gets seen to be drunk and disorderly, he's straight back in the nick.

There's also the matter of the criminal record. That sticks around for a lot longer than the sentence itself. I'm not sure how long it is but its a sliding scale based on a multiple of the original sentence, so his conviction wont be 'spent' for several years.

So in return for putting his life on the life for his country, his country has now rendered him unemployable.

 

Although not unsympathetic to Nightingales plight it was a reckless and stupid thing of him to do. He knew it was wrong and to compound it he had live ammo hidden away for the gun. Just why he wanted to keep it in the first place with live ammo is anyones guess? He wouldn't have sold it on? Of course not..hmmm

 

We haven't got all the facts available to us, but it is reported that he last knew about it while still in Iraq. His belongs were boxed up and sent to his home in the UK after his injury that that affected his memory. If that is the truth, then he didn't even bring the gun or ammo home, and once it was shipped home, was in no position mentally to know that it was there.

That's the version of events I've read (on 38 degrees). That's not to say it is or is not the unbiased truth, but in the absence of evidence to the contrary I'd give him the benefit of the doubt.

 

Well, this is what can happen if you smuggle weapons back over here...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bradford/7272095.stm

Also here is a list of bullets he kept illegally to go with the gun. You can get all the info on where they found it online. They were right to charge him IMHO

122 x 9mm live rounds of ammunition
40 x 7.62mm live rounds of ammunition
50 x 9mm frangible rounds of ammunition
50 x 338 armour piercing live rounds of ammunition
2 x .308 live rounds of ammunition
74 x 5.56mm live rounds of ammunition
With all due respect Clueless he has walked free because of public sympathy rather than anything else.

 

With all due respect, neither you nor I have all the facts to hand, so the best we can do is interpret the limited information we've seen and form our own opinions. Mine is that he shouldn't have been done, yours is that he should have been, that's fine, neither of us get to decide.